the singapore

8/8/2019 The Singapore

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The Singapore Infopedia:evolution of an online

encyclopediaBonny Tan

Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, National Library Board, Singapore

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of the Singapore Infopediasince its inception in 1998 as the InfoXpress until its relaunch in 2006. It seeks to look at some of thechallenges faced in design, content creation and data migration.

Design/methodology/approach This paper derives data from unpublished surveys, project

papers, user feedback and studies of similar online encyclopedias. It also draws from the authorsexperience and involvement in the project development between 1998 and 2005.

Findings The paper is a case study describing the conceptualization and user requirements for anonline encyclopedia with guidelines on content management and delivery. The project also involvedseveral surveys which provide invaluable insights to user preferences. Learning lessons gleaned indeveloping an online encyclopedia on Singapore were derived from early prototype design, studyingexisting online encyclopedias and user needs surveys of the InfoXpress.

Originality/value The development, migration and re-establishment of the Singapore Infopediawere followed closely by surveys of users and studies of existing online encyclopedias. Although notall user preferences were incorporated, the survey data and online encyclopedias studied giveindication of preferences, design issues and content development strategy that can be applied tosimilar platforms.

Keywords Electronic publishing, Internet, Databases, Content management, Customer surveys,

Singapore

Paper type Case study

1. IntroductionThe Singapore Infopedia began as the InfoXpress kiosk, a remote Reference servicelaunched in 1998. Information on Singapores national history and culture was oftendifficult to find and was scattered in primary resources such as newspapers, streetdirectories and magazines. Whilst bibliographic tools provided access to some sources,students and new scholars often found these tools tedious particularly if they were newto the subject. Since the 1980s, the Reference staff had manually collated frequentlyasked questions (FAQs) about Singapore and their respective answers. These formed

the initial pool of data for an online encyclopedic database. The InfoXpress databasethus began with FAQs on Singapores history and culture along with their answers. Italso offered pointers to relevant sources in the librarys holdings. In 1998, theInfoXpress was launched with more than 1,000 Singaporeana FAQs as stand alonekiosks located in selected libraries. Surveys of the database were conducted in the late1990s of user needs (National Library Board, 1998, 1999). This feedback served toguide the development of InfoXpress into the Singapore Infopedia. Changes includedenhancements of the FAQs into encyclopedic articles, the addition of copyright-free

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm

The SingaporeInfopedia

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Received 6 March 2007Revised 26 March 2007

Accepted 26 March 2007

The Electronic Library

Vol. 26 No. 1, 2008

pp. 55-67

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0264-0473

DOI 10.1108/02640470810851734


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images and the incorporation of standards. The contents of the InfoXpress databasewas migrated into Microsoft SQL and relaunched as the Singapore Infopedia inmid-2006.

2. The predecessor the InfoXpressThe InfoXpress kiosk was designed as a remote reference desk for lending libraries,providing reference services in locations with limited reference resources.

The InfoXpress prototype had two distinct components first, a database searchand second, a remote reference enquiry service (Figure 1). Users at the InfoXpresskiosks could either search the database for answers or send an enquiry to a remotereference desk service, Reference Point. Answers to queries on the database could beretrieved immediately through a simple search mechanism. Replies to enquiries couldbe retrieved directly via the kiosk or were sent to the patrons personal e-mail.

The InfoXpress enquiry service had a unique feature. It allowed for relevant FAQson Singapore to be ported over to the InfoXpress database. So answers crafted for the

users could be refined and saved as a database entry, preserving the effort put into theoriginal answers. The InfoXpress prototype also acted as a test bed for developing acontent generating community especially among the library staff, building up staffsubject expertise on local content and collections.

2.1 The InfoXpress databaseThis was a content database focused on Singapore the countrys culture, history andpeople. Initially the entries were presented as questions and answers, with pointers toprint and non-print sources for further readings. Besides presenting a backbone ofcontent on Singapore history, the process of content creation was an importantsecondary function that helped the library staff. Content development was seen as an

Figure 1.The database function andenquiry service in theInfoXpress Prototype(1998)

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important part in developing staff knowledge of the Singapore collection holdings, ofuser needs in this subject field and a deeper understanding of subject knowledge onSingapore.

The InfoXpress database also had a parallel resource in Chinese the Chinese

InfoXpress. The concept of the InfoXpress was thus translated into a Chinese versionof the online encyclopedia. Its content reflected the concerns and interests of theChinese Singapore community. However, the individual English articles in theInfoXpress database were not directly translated into Chinese.

2.2 The InfoXpress enquiry serviceThis service aimed to address first-tier reference enquiries then handled by thereference counter at lending libraries. It sought to provide a stable and affordableframework to enable a user to obtain relevant responses from an information provider.

Users could send an e-mail through the kiosk, which used the Lotus Notes software,

to lodged the query at Reference Point. Answers could be retrieved via the kiosk byuser log-in or via e-mail. Queries and answers crafted for the user were saved in anEnquiry database also on Lotus Notes. Useful answers related to Singapore whichproved relevant to the InfoXpress database could be ported into the FAQ databasedirectly from the Enquiry database. These FAQs were edited to ensure the anonymityof enquirer and republished so users at the kiosk could access them.

3. User surveysBy the end of 1998, the kiosks had been tested in four selected libraries. The librarysites were the National Reference Library (NRL), Tampines Regional Library (TRL),

Geylang East Library (GE) and Cheng San Library (CS). These libraries arerepresentative of the range of sizes, locations and services available at NLB libraries atthat time.

The NRL focused solely on reference services and did not have lending services. Alending library however was co-located within the premises of the NRL. TRLrepresented the regional libraries with a range of services that included lendingservices as well as reference services. GE represented the stand-alone librariesthatprovided information for the general public through its lending services. The CSrepresented the shopping mall libraries, much smaller in size and staffing which serveda community of shoppers.

A quantitative survey was conducted between December 5-31, 1998 a majorschool holiday before the start of a new school year. The survey was summative and

was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of the InfoXpress kiosk and its respectiveservices, namely the database and the remote enquiry service. Basic questions on theuse and usefulness of the services were presented. Walk-in users were asked to test thesystem and give their feedback. Most were using the kiosks for the first time. At least100 returns were required from each of the library sites prototyping the service. A totalof 548 users responded to the questionnaire from the four specially selected sites.Electronic tracking and log-in analysis between December 1998 and June 1999 helpedverify data.


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3.1. Evaluation of the content databaseOn average, at least 27,841 searches were registered a day across the libraries,approximately 1,740 per kiosk per day. Based on electronic and users feedback, themajority of the users were students constituting 80.6 percent (electronic tracking) and

48.4 percent (manual tabulation) of users respectively, most of whom were searchingfor information related to their studies. However, at the Reference Library, the bulk ofusers were in the 26-59 age group constituting 41 percent of users, many of whom wereconducting business research or higher level academic research. Using electronictracking over the a six-month period, the most popular topic searched at all sites wasHistory which averaged 2,111 hits per month or 8 percent of all searches. However, atthe Reference Library, the most popular topic was Business and Industries whichaveraged 1,145 hits per month or 7 percent of all searches (Figure 2).

Based on the survey, a higher satisfaction level for the database was seen in thepredominantly student population between ages 12-19. This is reflective of the fact thatthe database was derived from FAQs from student projects of the same age group. For

users looking for current information or specialized information, the InfoXpress wasunable to satisfy their needs. This dissatisfaction was seen mainly in the libraries withexisting reference services (55 percent dissatisfied in NRL and 51 percent in TRL)where users were likely to seek out more in-depth enquiries and likely to have had priorexperience of receiving personalized assistance through the Reference desk.

A large proportion of the 42 percent that indicated they could not find theinformation needed had mistaken the kiosk for being an Internet kiosk or an OPAC.Many also used the kiosk to search for general information not realizing that the kioskonly held Singapore content. However, at least 37 percent had indicated that theirdissatisfaction was that the InfoXpress presented too little information. This couldmean that users found what was required but the information proved insufficient fortheir needs.

Figure 2.Results of the top fourtopics for user searchesbased on log-in trackingverifies History as themost popular subject(December 1998-March1999, June 1999)

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Users had also requested that hyperlinks to related subject sites be associated with thearticles. Similarly, images especially of locations, monuments or people are to beincluded with the articles.

3.2 Evaluation of the Enquiry serviceThe Enquiry service raised several issues related to process and technical aspects.Initial user surveys of the kiosks showed that the enquiry service had a limited reachand satisfaction level. Added to this, the growing ease of online communication madedirect e-mailing a more appropriate form of servicing remote reference enquiries. Alsoboth staff and users preferred a more interactive platform such as the telephone orelectronic chat for handling reference enquiries.

On average, 122 enquiries were received daily through the InfoXpress kiosks. Thisconstituted only 0.02 percent of the total enquiries handled at reference point. Themajority of users were students comprising 48.4 percent and their requests wererelated to either studies (49.6 percent) or leisure interests (23 percent). However, at least

48.1 percent were abusive enquiries, constituting obscenities, undecipherable, blanksor repeat enquiries. Also based on electronic tracking of log-ins, 76.6 percent ofenquiries sent through the kiosks were not retrieved by the user. This was likelybecause the process of returning to the kiosk without knowing when the answers wereready for retrieval was perceived as cumbersome and inconvenient.

3.3 Changes implementedThe surveys were summative as well as iterative. Another survey in 1999 wasconducted after further changes were made based on the feedback of the earlier survey.This included removing the enquiry service which was not proving popular amongstusers. Conversely, as users had requested for more information from the InfoXpress,

the content in the database was converted from simple FAQs to short encyclopaedicarticles.

As early as 1999, the InfoXpress database began converting all 1,000 entries intoencyclopedic articles, each appended with a short bibliography of sources. The kiosksremained popular for its searchable database on Singaporeana whilst the Enquirydatabase remained as a backend tool for the Reference Point service. RelevantSingaporeana FAQs lodged in the Enquiry database could still be ported into theInfoXpress database. Thus the effort in researching for an enquiry on Singapore helpedin populating the InfoXpress with useful articles.

4. Singapore Infopedia

The InfoXpress was enhanced based on the surveys of 1998 and 1999 and renamed theSingapore Infopedia. The Infopedia sought to redefine itself as the premier site forSingapore history by attempting to comprehensively cover topics not yet madeavailable electronically. The content of the database was expanded in 1999 tocomprehensively covering key eras in Singapores history, including personalities,organizations and events during these eras; to expand on documents on culture andcustoms of Singapore and to develop a skeleton outline of the history of the NationalLibrary.


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4.1 Target audience for contentThe development of the Singapore Infopedia dovetailed with the National EducationProgramme that was launched on 16 May 1997. The Programme aimed to developnational cohesion, the instinct for survival and confidence in the future (www.moe.

gov.sg/ne/). National Education is a non-examinable subject implemented in thecurriculum from primary level to pre-university level with a strong emphasis on thehistory of Singapore. National Education however, went beyond school and was alsoincorporated into training schedules for government officials (www.nexus.gov.sg/).

Concurrently, renewed interest in the historical background of Singapores placesand people was generated from the ground-up by local hobbyists and communityactivists. Also active were associations such as the Singapore Heritage Society, privatewalking tours such as The Original Singapore Walks (www.singaporewalks.com/) andprivate heritage agencies such as The Singapore History Consultants (www.singaporehistoryconsultants.com/). Interest was also encouraged from the top downthrough key organizations in the National Heritage Board, namely through themuseums, the National Archives and related agencies as well as the SingaporeTourism Board.

The target audience for the Singapore Infopedia thus expanded to a larger base,away from the student population of 13-17 year old. The Infopedia was now to targetprofessional bodies in key industries such as the tourism industry, the educationalcommunity, the local media as well as research-based communities such as the serioushobbyist, local and foreign researchers, genealogists and academics.

4.2 Framework for InfopediaAs guidelines to develop the content and interface for the Infopedia, both existing printencyclopedias and online encyclopedias were consulted. For print sources, the Britannica Micropedia was examined as it presented information in concise yet

informative short articles. For online sources, the Britannica Online (www.britannica.com/) and the electronic Americana were studied for their layout, content, accessibilityand value. The Britannica and Americana are established print encyclopedias with adistinguished history. However, as online resource tools, they explored new ways ofpresenting their wealth of knowledge. The KnoweldgeNet, a local portal withencyclopedic articles on Singapore, was also studied.

In 1974, the Britannica had overhauled its traditionally unified arrangement for atripartite structure made up of:

. Propedia a tool revealing the circle of learning or known knowledge;

. Macropedia which had long essays detailing ten broad categories of knowledge;and

. Micropedia which initially served as an index to Macropedia, but through itspopularity gained greater scope as a miniature encyclopedia (Auchter, 1999).

Furthermore, in 1997, it became the first print encyclopedia to make an online presence.The Americana is the first encyclopedia of magnitude to be published in NorthAmerica in 1829. Its electronic version was first released in CD format in 1995 before itsubsequently went online. Both encyclopedias provide access to its full-text onlythrough subscription, although initial prototypes were offered free-of-charge.

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The Americana and Britannica are written for the educated user, including studentsof higher levels. As such, the language is plain yet not simplistic. The style is concise,with key ideas encapsulated in clear, crisp sentences. However, McHenry (2003),previously the editor-in-chief of Britannica, laments the loss of a lyrical style inherent

in earlier editions of the Britannica, particularly the 11th edition. The BritannicaOnline, however, profiles some articles from its past editions, something not featured inits print format. Through this feature, the changes in knowledge and how theinformation is expressed can interestingly be surveyed especially when a single subjectis examined.

Britannica Online gives multiple approaches toward its content. A user is able to:

(1) search for content;

(2) browse through its subject outline which seems based on its tripartiteknowledge presentation; or

(3) browse its alphabetical listing.

The electronic Americana gives options (1) and (2), where (2) is a broad subject listingbut does not provide an alphabetical browse listing. The Britannica Online also offersparallel online sources such as websites and related articles associated with the subjectsearched.

Britannicas entries often start with a summary introduction followed by a table ofcontent if the article can be expanded further (Figure 3). Each subheading is launchedas a separate webpage with the content page attached below for easy navigation. Thusdespite an often lengthy write-up for article entries, the launch of subsections asindependent pages allow for a better read and absorption of knowledge.

What is valuable in Americana that is not available in Britannica is thebibliographic listing of sources under it section Further Reading. This section links

to the Online Computer Library Centers (OCLC) WorldCatw

bibliographic database(OCLC), a data resource which links the catalogue details of libraries worldwide.Although Britannica does not list the sources used in developing the article, it doesprovide an exhaustive reading list for its key articles. Britannica also provides intextlinks to related encyclopedic articles as does Americana through tabs. Finally, theelectronic Americana takes pains to credit the authors of each article although this isnot done in Britannica Online.

An existing online Singapore encyclopedic resource entitled KnowledgeNet, fundedby the National Archives also served as a learning experience for developing theSingapore Infopedia. Created in the late 1990s, entries covered aspects of Singaporeshistory and communities, written by a range of experts from academics to journalist.They were accompanied by original digitized photographs from the National Archives

holdings. The web portal also had links to related academic papers on Singaporehistory as well as an online student newsletter, videos from old newsreels and adiscussion list. Unfortunately, developing new content and maintaining the platformproved costly.

The Britannica Online, the electronic Americana and KnowledgeNetwere chosen forstudy as they served a similar target audience as the planned Singapore Infopedia that is, a wide age spectrum yet having a special focus on students and the largereducational community such as teachers and other educationist. Besides studying the


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content structure, layout, search capabilities and help functions, aspects ofsubscription and funding were also explored.

Although the Wikipedia was already online by the early 2000s, its value andstanding had yet to be tested. Added to this was the question of propriety or ownershiprights to the database. Other issues included the copyrights of final articles and

images, the authority and reliability of the article, and the sources used for creating thearticle. The Wikipedia however provided useful insights to the content creationprocesses and the design of the content creators interface which usually remain hiddenfrom online encyclopedias such as Britannica Online and the electronic Americana.

4.3 Standards and templatesBeginning in 1998, the FAQs were rewritten as short encyclopedic articles between 300to 800 words. The articles had to be clear and succinct, yet accurate. Thus each was

Figure 3.Article entry for theBritannica Online

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stringently edited for both language and content. To assist in the editing process, anin-house style guide was compiled, based on the following sources:

. The Britannica Encyclopedia;

.

Copy-editing: the Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers(Butcher, 1992);

. The Economist Style Guide (1991);

. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (AmericanPsychological Association, 1994); and

. Fowlers Modern English Usage (Fowler, 1996).

Besides addressing aspects such as spelling, punctuation and citation format, the styleguide also defined key elements for generic types of articles. Thematic templates forkey categories in the Singapore Infopedia such as people, places, organizations andevents were defined, following the structure of articles in Britannica Micropedia

(Figure 4). These templates helped retain a measure of consistency over a wide range oftopics. Each template defined the key data required such as the personal life as well asaccomplishments of a famed or infamous individual. The first paragraph of each articlewas also important as it served as the abstract and the searchable entry point into thearticle.

Following each article were references used in writing the article and a briefbibliography for further readings. The references and bibliography pointed tomaterials available in the National Librarys holdings or from online sources such asdatabases and the internet. These included print and non-print materials from books,

journals, newspapers, audiovisual materials and websites.

Figure 4.Infopedia template for

articles on People


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The subjects and themes of the articles followed aspects of the National Educationcurriculum including areas such as Singapore Pioneers, Vanishing Trades and eventsof national importance such as the Japanese Occupation.

Rather than standard library subject headings, keywords had been used to

categorize documents in the initial stage of creating InfoXpress. These subjectsubdivisions such as Architecture, Pioneers and Places were used as they allowed for asimple drop-text for browsing by the user.

Copyright issues made existing images available in public and private collectionsdifficult to adopt for the project. To obtain copyright-free images, staff sought togenerate their own images as they had done with the content. Thus in 2003, staff beganphotographing key sites and events to accompany the articles. The Singapore Picturesproject therefore began as an appended image project supported by volunteeruntrained staff with a keen interest in photography. An island-wide mapping ofrequired images was drafted based on existing and potential InfoXpress articles. Theseincluded artifacts, buildings, monuments, cultural events and disaster sites. Theimages were saved by dates and broad topics, and assigned a simple title which hadthe photographers name appended so a search and due credit could be made.

Creating original articles for the database required writing skills and editorialexpertise. Researchers engaged in the project were required to have the essential skillsfor research, concise writing and data-trawling. Most were tertiary level studentsrather than scholars as the entries were written at an introductory level with littleanalytical insights. Librarians who edited the work of the researchers were alsorequired to be proficient in the language and have some knowledge of the subject.Figure 5 provides an overview of the workflow incorporated into the design of theInfopedia database showing the document flow through various contributors anddocument status.

5. Content migration the Singapore InfopediaIn 2003, the InfoXpress was redesigned as the Singapore Infopedia in preparations forthe launch of the new National Library building that was planned for 2005. About 100articles continue to be added annually to the database. Due to limited resources, thedatabase remained exclusively an onsite service available to users at the library. For alimited period between 1999 and 2003, the InfoXpress was made available on theStudents Virtual Community, a prototype portal that schools could subscribe to. Bythe end of 2004, the InfoXpress was no longer an FAQ database but instead held 970published articles in short encyclopedic format and had gained credibility as a resourcefor student heritage research for the secondary school level. By its launch in mid-2006,the Singapore Infopedia held more than 1,000 articles on Singapore.

5.1 Content management toolsBesides the technical redesign of the database and the migration of data from LotusNotes to Microsoft SQL, major developments included the development of a staffinterface that incorporated administrative functions of assigning, creating, editing andpublishing a document. The migration process also entailed mapping fields in theexisting InfoXpress database to Dublin Core metadata terms.

The content management tool (Figure 6) was designed for tabulation of completeddocuments by date, status and contributor so staff could be assessed based on their

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deliverables. Versioning was not incorporated into the design, so changes in the articleis not monitored. However, an audit trail kept track of document movement and status.A document could be withdrawn, updated or made obsolete. A withdrawn documentcould be worked on although users will not be able to access it. Updated documents

Figure 5.Document workflow chart

incorporated into the

design of the Infopediadatabase


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however, are immediately accessible after changes are made. An obsolete documentwill inevitably be deleted.

Staff can assign images to a document, picking from a pool of pre-selected images.However, meta-tagging of the documents and images are conducted by a separate team

skilled in cataloguing. The cataloguers use the abstract created as a means to definethe subject and metadata for the document and images.

6. ConclusionThe database was launched in 2006 and was well-received by both the educationalcommunity and the general public. Today, the Singapore Infopedia is accessiblethrough the Librarys portal (www.nlb.gov.sg) or directly from its own site (http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg). The learning lessons derived from surveys and early onlineexamples of encyclopedias proved instructive in developing a robust platform. It wasimportant to look beyond the technical structure of the online encyclopedia and exploreboth user needs as well as content structure in constructing the Infopedia. Althoughthere were existing platforms such as the Wikipedia which provided free shareware

and a framework for an online encyclopedia, aspects such as rights issues and contentauthority made it unwieldy to adopt the Wikipedia platform at that time. In developingan internal platform for the encyclopedia, there was greater control over informationcreation, information access and rights. Limitations to this approach also meant thatdata could not be built through community participation and versatility in the platformdesign was limited to staff input rather than inherent in the software.

However, technical developments and similar concerns have led to furtherdevelopments which now allow for the setting up of an online encyclopedia such as the

Figure 6.The Singapore Infopedia(2004) content manager

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Singapore Infopedia with limited effort. Even so, the lessons of crafting anencyclopedia and establishing standards can still prove useful in ensuring consistencyand an informative tool.

References

American Psychological Association (1994), Publication Manual of the American PsychologicalAssociation, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.

Auchter, D. (1999), The evolution of the Encyclopedia Britannica: from the Macropedia toBritannica Online, Reference Services Review, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 291-9.

Butcher, J. (1992), Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

(The) Economist Style Guide (1991), Economist Books, London.

Fowler, H.W. (1996), The New Fowlers Modern English Usage, Clarendon Press and OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford and New York, NY.

McHenry, R. (2003), Whatever happened to encyclopedic style?, Chronicle of Higher Education,

Vol. 49 No. 25, February 28, pp. B13-B14.National Library Board (1998), Infopedia survey, unpublished, National Library Board,

Singapore.

National Library Board (1999), Infopedia survey, unpublished, National Library Board,Singapore.

Further reading

Kister, K.F. (1994), Kisters Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and SpecializedEncyclopedias, The Oryx Press, Phoenix, AZ.

Ministry of Education, Singapore (1997), Launch of national education, May 16, available at:www.moe.gov.sg:80/press/1997/pr01797.htm

Tan, B. (2006), A user needs assessment of a cultural heritage portal: the Singapore Infopedia,unpublished MSc. dissertation, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

About the authorBonny Tan joined the National Library in 1997 as a Reference Librarian. One of her earliest taskswas the setting up of the FAQ database, which was named the InXpress. She was also involvedin evaluating the database through surveys in 1997 and 1998. Her contributions continued as sheprovided user requirements for the Singapore Infopedia, which culminated in the migration ofthe InfoXpress database to its new platform in 2005 and a dissertation paper on the subject.Currently Bonny resides in Vietnam although she works part-time for the National LibraryBoard on projects related to heritage. Bonny Tan can be contacted at: [email protected]


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